1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an auxiliary pollution reducing and fuel saving device for use in connection with internal combustion engines to reduce the contaminants in the exhaust gas and the amount of fuel consumed through more efficient fuel consumption. Besides reducing pollution, the use of the device improves the dependability, efficiency and performance of internal combustion engines and renders the engines more economical to operate by minimizing fuel consumption. While enhancing the quality of the environment by reducing objectionable contaminants ordinarily spewed into the atmosphere from engine exhausts, use of the device of the present invention alleviates some of the adverse effects of higher prices and short supplies of available fuels resulting from the current energy crisis. These objectives are achieved by heating the fuel in heat exchanging relationship with radiator fluid to preheat the fuel for presentation to the carburetor or fuel injector in warm atomized liquid form for admixture with air prior to introduction to the combustion chambers of the engine.
The exhaust gases from the average automobile and similar vehicles powered by internal combustion engines contain a mixture of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, unburned or partially burned hydrocarbons, nitrogen, some of the nitrogen oxides, etc. These exhaust gases contribute to the production of smog and similar forms of air pollution in such quantities as to be considered objectionable and potentially harmful. The federal government and states, led by California, have legislated increasingly stringent requirements for control of emissions from automotive engines.
Efforts to meet present and anticipated requirements have led to the addition of complicated and expensive catalytic converters and mufflers and after-burners, and the like, designed to treat the exhaust gases and resulting in increased fuel consumption, decreased engine efficiency and decreased mileage. Resistance to compliance with pollution control requirements has increased as shortages of available fuel have curtailed ready availability of fuel and caused sharp price increases.
Heretofore, efforts toward abatement of vehicle exhaust pollution has been directed to treatment of the exhaust gases which already contain the objectionable contaminants. The present invention is directed toward abatement of pollution at the source by promoting more efficient combustion of the fuel so as to minimize production of contaminants in the combustion chamber. This is done by preheating the fuel prior to combustion by means of a simple efficient heat exchanger unit as described in detail herein. It has been found that the result is less exhaust pollution with possible 30 to 40 per cent improvement when the unit is used in a car with a conventional exhaust system, as compared to the same vehicle without the unit. There is significant reduction of disagreeable odor indicating reduction of hydrocarbon contaminants. The carbon dioxide content of the exhaust is higher indicating the presence of less carbon monoxide and better combustion of carbon monoxide. At the same time, through more efficient engine operation, better mileage is achieved resulting in more economical use of fuel.
The improved dependability, efficiency and performance of a vehicle engine with which the pollution control is used is especially significant in minimizing fuel consumption and resulting in economical operation when the engine is operated under cold weather conditions. It is well known that internal combustion engines such as are commonly used in automobiles, trucks, buses and various other types of automotive vehicles, are relatively less efficient when operated in low temperatures such as are common in northern climes during the winter months. Most of the northern regions of the United States are subjected to subzero temperatures each winter for periods ranging from a few days to several weeks. Portions of Alaska and Northern Canada are subjected to extreme subzero temperatures down as low as -70.degree. F. The loss of dependability, efficiency and performance of internal combustion engines during cold winter months is due largely to the inability of the usual carbureting systems to adequately and thoroughly atomize the cold raw liquid hydrocarbon fuel as it is delivered into the combustion chambers of the engine.
2. The Prior Art
Numerous attempts have heretofore been made to provide means for preheating the liquid fuel before delivery to the engine cylinders. U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,124, issued Apr. 20, 1976 to one of the present applicants, contains an extensive review of the prior art as illustrated in earlier U.S. patents. With the exception of the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,124, none of the prior art patents suggests any relationship between preheating of fuel and pollution control. The aforesaid patent describes a simplified fuel system for internal combustion engines embodying a pollution control unit in the form of a device for preheating the liquid hydrocarbon fuel prior to delivery to the usual engine carburetor where the liquid fuel may be thoroughly and completely atomized to provide a highly combustible fuel mixture which may be readily ignited for more complete and efficient combustion in the combustion chambers of the engines, without regard to ambient conditions, especially subfreezing and subzero atmospheric temperatures.